The politics of courtesy – Congress to leave two Legislative Council seats for NC

After the NC put its support behind Ghulam Nabi Azad in the recent Rajya Sabha (RS) elections, cementing Azad’ berth as the member of opposition, it is now the turn of Congress to reciprocate the favour. It may seem as though the Congress leaders are lobbying hard for the legislative council (LC) seats, but the party is likely to leave the two seats for the National Conference to score win on.

Among the total of eleven LC seats, BJP-PDP combine is set to win nine seats comfortably for which the elections are to be held on March 2. Out of the nine, the PDP is likely to give five seats to BJP and keep four since PDP won two out of the four RS seats and BJP got only one, with one going to Congress with the backing of NC.

PDP is to field candidates on two seats from Kashmir province and one each in Kargil and Jammu province. It will leave three seats of Jammu province, one from Leh and one from Kashmir province for the BJP. The PDP-BJP combine will easily win three seats for which separate by-elections will be held. The duo will also score comfortably on the two seats from Kargil and Leh tehsil of the Ladakh region.

The Congress-National Conference pair is in a position to win one out of the four seats in Jammu province. The Congress-NC combine can win one out of the two reserved seats in Kashmir if the independent MLAs vote in their favour. The support from the independents and others is not a big deal considering they supported Azad in the RS elections

As per ECI notifications, seven elections are to be held for 11 seats and one MLA is to cast 7 votes.